Ok, my Iliads been updating its software now for at least 2 hours - it appears to have crashed and i'm stressed that its going to be dead now.

This is what the screen looks like;
I have a screen where it lists the 6 steps of the software upgrade BUT covering half of the 1st step it says SOFTWARE UPDATE IN PROGRESS - which again, looks like its crashed.

Ok, it had totally crashed - i had to reset it - i didnts ee what else i can do - and now it doesnt work. I have the start up screen where the iliad boots up and once the bar fills up it just stays at that point.

Have you ever run a 3rd Party app like fbreader/chess whatever [-> installed developer package]?

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1. Make sure your iLiad is powered off, with nothing on the screen.
2. Hold the connect button in the upper right hand corner of your iLiad.
3. While holding the button, press the power switch on the bottom.
4. Count to Five while continuing to hold the button.
5. Release the connect button.

You should see the boot image appear. After a second or two, the whole screen will flash white, and it will start to boot normally.

Does this work w/o inserted CF? Do you get this flash white?
If yes unbricking [with inserted compact flash plus image] should work.

No, i've never run anything than what the Iliad came with - i still dont understand why it even crashed in the first place.

i've tried doing this but it doesnt seem to work - although i cant even get to step 1. Even after i reset the iliad it still doesnt have a blank screen - it just has the start up screen frozen on it. This is with the power turned off.

I cant get this to work - i dont know if its because of the fact that its messed up already and would normally...

That part is normal. A reset does not blank the screen. Even though your device is shutoff now, it'll keep showing whatever was on the screen before you reset it. It confuses a lot of people, but it's normal for how eInk works.

I did recall reading that - so theoretically i should be able to get the screen to flash white by going through the steps Yokos mentioned above?

The fact i cant fills me with dread..

I would have been a little surprised if it had worked. As far as I understand, you need to have installed the developer access in order to be able to reflash your iLiad. It doesn't sound like you had signed up for that.

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Does anyone have any idea what i did wrong int he first place and what i should do next?

I'm not sure if you necessarily did anything wrong, I've heard of problems during an update from other users. I think the only thing you can really do at this point is get in touch with iRex and find out what they can do. They should be able to reflash the device for you, the question is how much they'll charge to do it since you don't have a warranty. Maybe since all you did was try to update the software they'll take pity on you and fix it relatively cheaply. At the least I expect they'll want to charge you for the shipping though.

Absolutely the same case. Yesterday I tried to update the firmware and requested the developer package aswell - there was old version of existing firmware. And at the same step "1. Verifying Upgrade (version 2.9.5)" the screen become frozen. No any restarting/reflashing is started...
I suppose the only way - sending the device to iRex technologies.

Btw, is any knows the best way (convenient,reliable) to send the device back for repair?

Could any perform testing the update to the last firmware? Please make it and ask results. Maybe this error appeares only with an old version of firmware...

Btw, is any knows the best way (convenient,reliable) to send the device back for repair?

From what I've seen the most reliable way to contact their tech support is to call them. Unfortunately, I've heard of lots of cases where emails and/or trouble tickets through their website go unanswered. Once you do contact them and arrange for the repair, they'll send you a box that you pack the device into and then ship it back to them.